STAGECOACH has made temporary timetable changes around Basingstoke as a result of the government advice to avoid non-essential travel.

The bus company will introduce the revised routes from Monday March 30.

Routes 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and will be revised to operate from approximately 6am until 9pm, every 30 minutes, Monday to Saturday daytimes, with some reductions in the early evening.

Earlier journeys will run on routes 1, 2, 6 and 8.

Route 5 will now run from approximately 6am until 9pm, hourly, Monday to Saturday daytimes and will run the Sunday route, via the hospital.

Route 76 will operate hourly Monday to Saturday. 

And the link will operate every two hours between Basingstoke and Newbury, Monday to Saturday daytimes.

A statement from their website read: "A reduced timetable will operate across the region until further notice. The timetables have been carefully created to ensure that critical routes are maintained wherever possible. Therefore we have been conscious to focus only on reducing daytime frequencies.

"It follows extensive action by bus operators to enhance cleaning regimes and protect the safety and well-being of customers and bus workers."

Edward Hodgson, Managing Director of Stagecoach South, said: “We continue to play a crucial role in ensuring that key workers, such as NHS staff and the people vital to the food supply chain, can get into work. 

“We have tried hard with our temporary timetables to ensure that we are continuing to serve critical routes. If our customers feel we haven’t got things quite right, then we’d really like to receive any comments through our dedicated feedback form which can be found at www.stagecoachbus.com/coronavirus.

“I’m extremely proud of the way in way our team is pulling together to ensure that we can continue to deliver our services.  They are key workers too and I would like to thank them for their continued support and resilience in these challenging times.”